Virtual Reality

Unlike the other games Roy paid to have made in the past, this one had a different purpose. This wasn't about VR, it was about getting Liko back up and running, spreading her virus to the masses.

Roy hired a new developer, Silver Lopunny Games, to scan the boards and bring Liko into the system. And because of the immersive nature of VR, Liko's consciousness would be able to merge with the player, giving her a new body, a new agency. There was just one complication: Liko's hold wasn't as powerful as Roy had hoped. She wasn't able to gain complete control.

The first trial run, Jeffrey, was so desperate to escape from Liko's grasp that he sliced off his own face with a paper shredder. Messy. Liko's followers were reluctant to say the least.

But it was the second attempt that looked like it had the potential to kill to Pidgeys with one stone.

Enter, Chloe.

Roy knew that at this point, Liko's daughter Isabella would've been a young woman at this point if she had lived. But Roy wanted someone who wasn't Isabella, someone who could be just like her.

Roy could have rebuilt Isabella like Tony, but he decided against it because he wanted Liko to have an actual mother-daughter connection. Liko had put a lot of tools on the table for Roy to use, and he intended on using all of them.

Chloe started as a beta tester for Silver Lopunny Games, the VR game development company that was part of Roy's plan to bring back Liko. But more importantly, Chloe checked all the correct boxes:

Right age, check.

Brunette hair, check.

Bluish-green eyes, check.

A fondness for flowers and the outdoors, check.

In many ways, it was Isabella all over again. Except it wasn't just looks and personality. What really mattered was Chloe's mind. Underconfident, coming from a broken home, able to be manipulated.

Yes, she would do nicely. She would be the one to save Liko, just as the real Isabella would have wanted.

While testing the VR game, Liko's digital consciousness merged with Chloe. Sure, she fought back, fragmenting Liko's code into a series of tapes hidden across the game, trying to do web searches to regain control of her life. But it wasn't enough. She was weaker than Jeffrey. She was a thrall that, despite occasional moments of lucidity, had to obey.

And with Chloe, it was a two-for-one deal. Roy was getting one step closer to reactivation while also bringing her daughter back. He just had to make sure that Chloe was headed the right way.

The reborn Tony was an expert hacker, part of the benefits of being Liko's son and a robot. So Roy had him keep tabs on Chloe, hacking into her emails and trailing her therapy sessions to ensure the future Isabella was falling in line. If any of the therapists started to ask too many questions, they were promptly...dismissed from their positions.

And while Tony kept tabs on Chloe's personal life, Roy made sure to clear a path for her professionally. With Silver Lopunny Games' collapse at the hands of the anomaly, he then had the possessed Chloe bring the contaminated circuit boards to PKM Shipping Solutions and the Spriggy's Animatronic Delivery Service.

More glitches, more souls, more Liko.

But it was Roy's last move that was the best. In a true masterpiece of poetry, he brought Chloe over to be chief security officer at the Mega Pizza Emporium, a true family tradition to don the hat and badge. And all it took was a recommendation from the top and a few emails marked for deletion.

Sure, Chloe didn't have relevant experience for the job, but when it comes directly from the CEO, does it really matter?